Wednesday, April 8, 2009

In collaboration withAlice Yard, Paul Kain and Robert Young, of the Cloth, London based Greta Mendez will perform a fragment of the her multi-media contemporary performance work, NdulgenceonThursday April 9th at 8.pm.Bring an extra eyebrow pencil and or lipstick.

Ndulgence uses images, text and calypsos, they collide and weave to get create a dramatic whole.'Ndulgence tells a story of a Caribbean woman (Madam Glo) who has lived most of her life in Europe, struggling for her identity, amidst the daily bombardment of the “perfect image”…. The 'Ndulgence journey is not unique, it is an everyday story of the aging women and identity but it would be told in an original and powerful way. Most of us as migrant people struggle for our identity as we are always on the margins even when we are appear to operating within the society. When we return to our countries of origin we are also seen as outsiders. Migrant peoples clutch onto their traditions but some host countries favour assimilation on their terms. The need to be glo/bal is also forging a new manufactured identity.".... there is a folk character called Mama Dlo/Dglo, Mama del’eau mother of the water. She sometimes takes the form of a beautiful woman and sits singing silent songs on still afternoons. She is really a houilla (wheel-a) anaconda; she makes cracking loud sounds with her tail. To escape Mama Dglo take off your left shoe, turn it upside down…..leave the scene walking backwards until you reach home and then there is Glo/bal"

"Everywhere we go there are images telling us what to wear, what to drive, what we should look like and so on"

Ndulgence highlights the external--social issues--and internal pressures pushing and pulling against each other in and around her. The need to find a voice in a society in which she is invisible, but how can she be obsessed with her image?How can she be so indulgent when?

"Vagrants and destitutes on the street Infants with simply nothing to eat Is arming, disarming, alarming droughts and famine The overlords and a chosen few making the whole world blue"-- Calypsonian Baron

.Alice Yard is the backyard space of the house at 80 Roberts Street, Woodbrook, Port of Spain.

This was once the house of Sean Leonard’s great-grandmother. Four generations of children played and imagined in this yard, and now we continue this tradition. Alice Yard is a space for creative experiment, collaboration, and improvisation.

Alice Yard is administered and curated by architect Sean Leonard, artist Christopher Cozier, and writer and editor Nicholas Laughlin, with the help of a growing network of creative collaborators. Read more about us here. Alice Yard is a non-profit organisation incorporated under the laws of Trinidad and Tobago.

Since 2008, Alice Yard has run a residency programme hosting artists, curators, and other creative practitioners. Find out more here.